The most used goal for YouTube videos is reach in the form of views. The number of views you can achieve is highly dependent on what your business is about. A cosmetic brand will potentially attract way more views than a consultancy. One of my videos – „The Social Media Effect“ – is very successful and it motivated some prospective clients to visit my website and to contact me for a proposal, i.e. it created profit. The video is at 6,600 views right now. Compare this number to the YouTube videos one of the most successful bloggers in Germany – MobileGeeks – whis is writing about notebooks, mobiles and other hardware. Some of their videos attract more than 5 times as much. So why is 6,600 a success? Because reports on hardware have a much wider target group than marketing advice. So pick your goals in relation to your potential and your possibilities.

You need to find content that provides a value to your target group. Most people like jokes. If your video is about financial advice, you need to report something serious. Find out what your target group has a need for. „The Social Media Effect“ is interesting, because nobody had so far tried to actually calculate the effect of social media sharing. But for marketers who need to justify social media activities, it is valuable to have such a calculation. Your content has to provide valuable information.

Present that content in a way that is interesting, funny, engaging or motivating. Find a way to make your point. Use common memes, fashion, fads, current events, symbols etc. to make sure, people understand you and can relate to what you are saying.

Use background Music. If you watch „The Social Media Effect“ without speakers, you will see that it is relatively boring. The music was chosen to give a feeling of mass engagement of human beings. You can find background music on YouTube or you can produce it with simple software.

Use all your contacts, social media platforms and all your other digital assets to promote the video. Do not hope for viral success, because the odds are against you. The reason for viral success of YouTube videos has not yet been found although many scientists are trying to find out. Virality seems to be more luck than anything else. Look at the chart above. „The Social Media Effect“ is still rising and it seems that it’s rising progressively. But it has not been shared more than 10 times (!!!!). Virality would have made the video reach its viewership much faster and this would have been great. But its still great, even without virality, because obviously there is a growing demand for the information in that video.